Pro-Russian separatists to hand over MH17’s black boxes

The prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said they will hand over the black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 to International Civil Aviation Organization

DONETSK, Ukraine (AA) – Alexander Borodai, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Sunday they will hand over the black boxes of Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 (Flight MH17) to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

During a press conference, Borodai said they will only hand over the black boxes of the plane that downed on Thursday with 298 people on board to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) authorities and not the Ukrainian authorities.

The search operation manned with 400 personnel continues looking for the bodies in a 35 kilometers square area, nearly 60 km from the Russian border. Up until now, 196 of the 298 bodies have been recovered and transported out of the region.

Thirty-two OSCE Special Monitoring Mission personnel have arrived in Eastern Ukraine in the area controlled by pro-Russian separatists aiming to investigate the crash of the plane.